Elon Musk's online network X has provoked significant outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple examples have emerged where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to create images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
